I've been around these parts for a while now - you haven't killed me, I haven't killed you - so I'd like to welcome you to my world.

After getting permission from the landlord, I'm pinning my shitty A4, hand-drawn poster to the pub wall and asking you all to join me, every week, for an ongoing discussion.

The thing that will form the core of that discussion will be the research I didn't put into my debut novel. Yes, yes, this is a form of shilling - apologies for those of you that don't like honesty - but it is a particularly Whitechaplian form.

My debut novel, Purefinder, is set in 1858 in London and over the course of the ongoing discussion themes will rear their ugly heads.

Until such a time, I want you to come up with the grossest, darkest, and most delectable ideas of what we'd do with a novel set in 1858 and the snippets that pop up here every Wednesday and Sunday. [Full disclosure, you can look at my blog to find out what I've hinted at but you won't find the whole truth - only here on Whitechapel will that eventually disgust you enough to look away from your screens. Of course, I can't give the whole book away so here too, there'll remain an element of the unseen.]

1858, Egypt. The Stele of Ankh-ef-en Khonsu (the Stele of Revealing) is discovered at the Temple of Hatsheput.

From the wiki:

On the front Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu is as a priest of Montu can be seen; he is presenting offerings to the falcon-headed god Re-Harakhty ("Re-Horus of the Two Horizons"), a synchronistic form of the gods Ra and Horus, who is seated on a throne. The symbol of the west, the place of the Dead, is seen behind Re-Harakhty. Above the figures is a depiction of Nut, the sky goddess who stretches from horizon to horizon. Directly beneath her is the Winged Solar Disk, Horus of Behdet.

The artefact goes on to become a central element in the Thelemic teachings of Aleister Crowley. In 1904, Crowley and his scarlet mistress, Rose, visit the Cairo Museum, and recognise the god depicted as Horus, who spoke to Rose through Aiwass. The catalogue number of the item, at the time, was 666.

Horus the Sky God, God of War and Hunting. Ra the Sun God, traveller in the Underworld, creator of the universe. Hatsheput, the empress, who helped build the wealth of Egypt by forging trade routes, sending out expeditionary forces.

I mention this merely in passing. In 1858 in London, Crowley was still unborn. Eliphas Levi, who Crowley claimed to be a reincarnation of, had visited London 5 years previously to perform a powerful magickal ritual. Occultism and spiritualism were gaining in popularity in London. People were listening to Mendelssohn. Darwin was about to unveil his theory of natural selection.

A fascinating time to set a story, Ben. I'll be reading the blog and these discussions with interest.

I didn't put much Egyptology or big discoveries in my research as I was trying to focus on my Purefinder's life and what he and his lot would know but I read through a year's worth of newspapers stretching over that period.

There was much that happened in 1858 that seems to have happened 150 years before and again 150 years after - were I more inclined to write fantasy or even sci-fi, I could have focused on it as a nexus point in time.

I like the fact that a midget is bringing them beer: as I'm tired, I can't remember if I included a midget in Purefinder but now I really hope I did.

You all have until Tuesday to tell me what the skeleton poker boys are up to. All responses welcome: tomorrow night [if I've internet in my new place] I'll let you know what I was going to do with it but didn't.

So: the previous image was originally intended to begin as a poker game they saw in a window where the skeleton was veiled but the veil slipped and the men soon began to covet the skeletons cards & bones, to rip off its arms, and to fuck its ribs. Covetous.

Seeing as how Oddcult got the jump on me: take that image, give me gore & plenty.

Well, lab rats, with no response I'll just have to shove it down your throats.

She was to be a walking, shambling vision of just what had happened to my main character's wife after death. My Purefinder would have seen her coming toward him in a moment of terror but I thought it too hammer horror to include in the end draft.